Our View: After anemic statewide primary voting, the runoffs are coming up

It’s been a busy primary season for Texas, and it didn’t end with Tuesday’s elections. Republicans will have four statewide runoff elections on May 27, and Democrats will have two. Lubbock County will have a Republican runoff election for Justice of the Peace, precinct 4.

The Lubbock County voter turnout for the primary elections was disappointing, with about 17.6 percent of the county’s registered voters participating in the election.

In the Republican primary, 22,956 voters cast ballots either in early voting or on Election Day. The Democratic primary totaled 4,015 voters.

As low as the voter turnout was in Lubbock County, it was stellar compared to the state average of 9.63 percent of registered voters.

Comparing Lubbock County voter turnout numbers in an apples-to-apples comparison to 2010 — which was an off-year for the presidential election but had primaries for Texas governor and other state races — Lubbock County Democrats declined from 4,531 ballots in 2010 and Republicans from 31,595 primary votes.

One reason for the lower primary turnout can be found at the top of the ticket. The 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary was a contentious contest between incumbent Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

By comparison, Attorney General Greg Abbott didn’t have a well-known opponent this year and easily won the nomination with more than 90 percent of the vote.

Our newspaper has been encouraging local citizens each week this year to Stand Up For America, and we continue here by urging local voters to make a commitment to participate in the May 27 runoff election, even if they didn’t vote in Tuesday’s election. Let’s continue to far outdistance the state percentage of voter participation.

Early voting for the runoff will be May 19-23. Those who cast ballots in one of the party primaries are required to vote in the same party’s runoff. People who didn’t vote in either primary election are eligible to vote in either party’s runoff.

Republican runoff elections include:

■ David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick for lieutenant governor.

■ Ken Paxton and Dan Branch for attorney general.

■ Sid Miller and Tommy Merritt for agriculture commissioner.

■ Wayne Christian and Ryan Sitton for railroad commisioner.

■ Republican voters in Lubbock County Precinct 4 will participate in a runoff between Ann-Marie Carruth and Gary Vaughn.

Statewide Democratic runoffs are:

■ David M. Alameel and Kesha Rogers for U.S. Senator.

■ Jim Hogan and Kinky Friedman for agriculture commissioner.

Voters can take away several things from the results of Tuesday’s election:

■ Expect tough governor’s race

Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis were considered the presumptive nominees of their parties, and their campaigns were focused on each other rather than on their primary opponents. Emphasis on such things as Davis’ inaccuracies about her background and Abbott’s campaigning with controversial rock singer Ted Nugent indicate fireworks will be likely in the general election.

■ The far right side of the Republican party continues to be effective at getting voters to the polls.

That was dramatically illustrated two years ago, when Ted Cruz came out of nowhere to qualify in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate and then outdistance Dewhurst.

We saw it Tuesday when State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who has gotten low ratings from conservative groups, won a narrow victory over former Midland Mayor Mike Canon, despite being better-known and better-financed.

■ Charles Perry’s impressive support from voters puts him in a strong position.

Perry’s receiving almost 75 percent of the votes against a qualified challenger in the House District 83 shows voters approve of the job he has done.

It also provides a possible view of the future if Sen. Bob Duncan is hired as Texas Tech chancellor and vacates his Senate seat. Perry’s approval from the voters could give him the inside track to being elected to the Senate.

■ The runoff for Lubbock County Justice of the Peace precinct 4 gives voters a good choice.

We endorsed attorney Ann-Marie Carruth. She will be in the runoff with Gary Vaughn, who has a background in firefighting and emergency medical services. Our editorial board interviewed all five candidates and considered Carruth and Vaughn to be the two strongest candidates.

At-a-glance

■ Our position: With crowded races in many statewide primary races, it isn’t surprising so many off them will require the May 27 runoff to determine the winner. The Republican races for lieutenant governor, comptroller and railroad commissioner had four candidates each, and the GOP agriculture commissioner race and Democratic U.S. Senate race both had five candidates. We are encouraging voters to participate in the May 27 runoff, even if they didn't vote in a primary election.

■ Why you should care: It’s troubling only 17.6 percent of Lubbock County’s registered voters made their voices heard in the primary elections. Voting is an important right, and the races were significant ones.

■ For more information: Log on to our website, www.lubbockonline.com, and enter the words “primary election” in the search box.

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Why endorse discriminatory voter ID laws then? Geez, you folks at the AJ endorsed laws that have already been ruled discriminatory by a Federal Court. You never gave a reason or showed how integrity had been compromised.

The D.O.J. under Bush said these voter ID laws would have a suppressive effect. Hispanics, African Americans, Women, the elderly. Seems like if the Lubbock AJ was interested in improving voter turnout, they wouldn't have endorsed these laws.

What was wrong with the laws before the bigots in the GOP changed them?

"Immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez pleaded guilty today to one felony count of voter-registration fraud related to charges that he lived in Santa Ana when he registered to vote in Los Angeles in 2008."

In 1996, Lopez aroused controversy for registering new citizens in the congressional district where Democrat Loretta Sanchez upset incumbent Bob Dornan, winning by 984 votes.
A congressional House Oversight Committee investigation later found
that some voters had cast ballots before their citizenship was finalized. that 748 improper ballots were cast. It found 624 of those were from immigrants who were not citizens, although many were in the process of gaining citizenship.

Lopez also ran into difficulties in 2002 over hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding received by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, whose services included citizenship training and English lessons. Prosecutors alleged that Lopez had wrongly used the education grants to pay the mortgage on his headquarters in Santa Ana.
Hermandad Mexicana Nacional agreed to pay a $600,000 settlement, but did not admit wrongdoing."

Show us more than one conviction for voter fraud by an undocumented worker in Texas. I saw your link to Texas and it doesn't show that. Instead, you are calling some other conviction voter fraud when it wasn't.

Really, even if you came up with TWO convictions for voter fraud by an undocumented worker in Texas, in the 21st century; it doesn't give the GOP the right to suppress minority voting, women, or the poor elderly. Even the poor.

Here is a current multi-part series about corruption and the Democrat Party in South Texas. It sounds like corruption from the late 1800's. It is Democrat vs Democrat down there so imagine how much fraud goes unreported. The articles are by an Independent in a local newspaper. While this is an opinion article, it is more like a documentary. A few of the highlights:

"There’s a story to tell—actually numerous, individual stories—but their summation is centered on one thing: the longtime, illegal voting practices and abuses in South Texas."

"It began with a series of phone calls—from three of my children who were trying to vote during the Hidalgo County primaries: a son in the military, another son away at college and a daughter who resided in the county. All were being turned down to vote. It seemed that my children were becoming the truly disenfranchised."

"Most of the stories centered around the South Texas politiqueras— “volunteers” working on behalf of a candidate, or two. Some are reimbursed out-of-pocket expenses for gas, food at political gatherings, etc. Others are paid thousands of dollars—under the table."

"The post-fact review gave us the ability to line the documents up side-by-side. One member of our team began to see a pattern of suspected forgeries as she spread a half dozen out in front of her from one precinct in South McAllen."

"The copies we made for documentation of the obviously illegal patterns stood a foot high."

"When he hit the sort button by address, it threw another light on the theft of elections: dozens of voter names at single addresses and post office box numbers."

"The voter registration cards could then be distributed to illegal aliens and citizens who were voting more than once in elections. They would sign the cards and go vote."
"When our group became involved with the citizens in Progresso, they knew who was an illegal alien and who wasn’t around town—and which illegal aliens were voting fraudulently. But, they also knew no one would help combat the problem."

"At the polling places, election clerks and judges were often clueless to the legal aspects of their duties and only trained in the mechanics of signing in, clearing the machines for the next voter, etc."

"The citizens of Hidalgo County and South Texas constantly lament the corruption entrenched here—evidenced by the string of political corruption cases since the FBI beefed up their presence."

"Vote-Buying Scandal Rattles Valley Politics
The FBI investigates the use of politiqueras in Valley elections"

"In the deeply Democratic Rio Grande Valley, the primary is the election that matters. And in local races like county commissioner and district attorney a sliver of votes can make a difference between winning and losing the election. Many times, paid campaign workers called “politiqueras” deliver the votes that put a candidate over the top.

Politiqueras—who are paid to turn out voters, especially in low-income neighborhoods and colonias—have been part of elections in the Rio Grande Valley for decades. But the recent suicide of a school board president in the small town of Donna and the indictment of three politiqueras for allegedly buying votes in a Donna school board election with beer, drugs and cash has rattled the Valley’s political world."

"The FBI alleges in federal court documents that Guadalupe Escamilla, Rebecca Gonzalez and Diana Castañeda worked as politiqueras for candidates in the 2012 primary, and for candidates for the Donna Independent School Board during the 2012 general election. According to the FBI, they were paid by campaign managers to buy votes for $3 to $10 per vote. Sometimes the women also gave out beer and cigarettes for votes and in some instances dropped off voters to buy drugs after they went to the polls."

"There is no evidence of outcome-changing voter fraud in America. What there is evidence of is narrow-minded, life-inexperienced people who can’t think for themselves in the midst of manufactured clouds of fear and mindless screeching of impending doom by callous extremists. The need for voter IDs in the United States is baseless, has no merit and is extremely cruel in its intent. Just because people do not live their lives like you does not mean that they are less human, less deserving of the rights of all citizens, and without need for each of us to stand firm for all of us to fully participate in the processes that shape this nation.

Let’s move on to what really matters: saving this country for everyone who is here. We cannot afford to waste one human life or to trample one person’s rights so that a narrow but vocal few can scream fire while they are in the middle of a theater."

Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed

BillyWayne, it seems like if there was a problem with the integrity of the previous Texas voter laws, you would have found it rather than doing an internet search for voter fraud in other states that amounts to squat.

Geez, Bill, our party seems to be a big tent party that fights for civil rights. We are diverse.

When I look at the racist rhetoric and hateful comments coming from the folks like Steve King, Louie Gomert(sic), Steve Stockman, Ted Cruz, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Randy Neugebaur, and many many more, I think most of their base tends to bigoted and ignorant when it comes to stereotyping, legislation, and just plain facts.

The Texas GOP platform is not that much different from the Texas Klan mission statement when you combine the legislative attempts, platform, and base demographics.

The Klan is all white. The Klan doesn't want minorities to have a vote or fair representation. The Klan is against abortion. The Klan favors economic disenfranchisement of minorities. How are they different than the GOP? The Klan votes for the Republican and in some cases, the GOP elects Klan members and Neo Nazis.

Please show me where democrats have tried to suppress white voters. I didn't catch that in the news. Documentation please. Please show me where the Dems have tried to ban heterosexual marriage. Show me where Dems have tried to limit a woman's right to choose.

Your comparisons hold no real water. The Black Panthers (old or new) are all black. The Black Panthers don't want whites to have a vote or fair representation. The BP are for abortion. Yada, yada, yada..